Abstract:

Being understood the global interest on achieving competitiveness and development
through technology; developing countries like Sri Lanka encourage International
Technology Transfer through possible methods such as Foreign Direct Investments
(FDI). Studying the technology transferred and capability building in the firms
established as FDIs in electronics manufacturing industry is the scope of this research.
The objectives of the study are: To identify the technology transferred at component
level to selected FDI companies in the electronic manufacturing industry; To analyze
technological capability levels of the organization; To analyze the perspectives of the
company owners and local staff on Board of Investment (BOI) policies with regard to
support given to Technology Transfer; To develop corporate stories on selected
companies. Models used to evaluate and achieve above objectives are Ramanathan K.
1994 the polytrophic components of manufacturing process technology model,
Ramanathan K., 2000 product technology in information context model and Panda, H.
and Ramanathan, K, 1996 model of technological capabilities and supportive steering
capabilities. The research is a combination of an empirical and scientific base in which
the data were collected from FDIs in Electronics manufacturing industry. These
companies are listed in BOI as electrical and electronics manufacturers and are
members of Sri Lanka Electronics Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association
(SLEMEA). A questionnaire and structured interviews were used to collect data from
population of 11 companies. 8 companies responded to the survey. Interviews used to
get data on BOI policies and schemes from BOI officers. Secondary data sources were
BOI and National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC) publications. A
formal statistical analysis was performed on data collected using MINITAB 14,
consisted of three parts: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Mean Comparison and
Linear Regression analysis. Main findings of this study are; Product Technology
components transferred are significantly lower than all the Process Technology
components. There's no larger difference in transferred Process Technology
components, but Technoware become the most transferred component. Production
capabilities are significantly larger than all other types of capabilities except
Acquiring capabilities. Even though electronics industry is given the highest priority
under the Thrust Industry Scheme under which the "best incentive package" under the
BOI Law has been accorded, these incentives do not necessarily help to get
technologies transferred to the country.
Technology Transfer through Foreign Direct Investments in Electronics Manufacturing Industry in Sri Lanka

Description:

The Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management of Technology for the MBA in Management of Technology